BANGALORE: Australia has opened its doors to skilled workers from India to handle the shortage of skilled workers.Australian Consul-General for South India, David Holly said, “We have made some changes to our Skilled Migration Policy to get more skilled talent from India.” The revised policy is expected to help permanent migrants to get the visa, based on their qualifications, skills, language ability and experience. It targets 1,25,850 skilled workforce from across the globe in order to narrow the demand gap in various sectors, including engineering, information technology and medical, by next June 30.Assistant Secretary, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Peter Speldewinde said that the age limit for permanent immigrant aspirants would be raised from 45 to 50 from July 1 and they have decided to give weightage to non- Australian degrees, too.Starting next month, independent migrant aspirants can send in their details and expression of intent electronically, which would be stored in a central registry and made available to companies looking for matching skills. If their skills match the requirements and the demand, they would be invited to apply for a visa.Independent migrants can stay in Australia and look for job opportunities after they clear the points test, which assesses qualifications and skill-sets. The revised policy would help choose aspirants, who in the medium or long term, could fill in the demand requirement of the country.“Australia has seen a surge in the migration in the past years as a result of those coming on a student visa settling down in the country. It leads to more migrants, but not necessarily those with matching skills as per the labour demand market. India figures among the top three countries in providing manpower to us,” Holly said.So, skilled manpower visa will be different from student visa.According to a consulate official, the number of students visiting Australia had gone down following some stray incidents involving Indian students, but is picking up now.The numbers of tourists and migrant aspirants, however, is witnessing a steady growth compared to earlier years. At present, there are about 3,00,000 people of Indian origin in Australia.
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